Roman Technology and Engineering

Roman Technology and Engineering

        When looking into times of antiquity we can discover a proportional relationship between advances in technology, and the proportional growth and success of the nations that implemented them. Rome serves as an excellent example of this as its vast cities stood testament to not only their wealth of resources, but also the extent to which they would develop those resources in pursuit of becoming the most influential empire of its time. Two of Rome’s greatest engineering feats were the Aqueducts that supplied the capital city with required fresh water, and the surveying and building of a vast network of roads developed to support military campaigns. I feel each of these serve excellent examples of not only how vital a role Roman engineers played in growing an empire, but also are two of the most influential developments to Rome’s ability to expand its borders.

        It should be of no surprise that Rome’s success in expanding and governing territories beyond the city of Rome were due to the military fortitude of the empire. Their military prowess comes from the ideals of discipline, speed, strength and might. The building and development of the roadways of Rome highlight those traits. The roads were constructed for the most part by soldiers, who were already being paid, and when not training or fighting would use their acquired skills pre-military (like carpentry and stonemasonry) to be useful road engineers and builders. In order for Rome to respond to disturbances and resupply troops in battle, they needed the ability to traverse their land at a minimum of 20 miles per day marching. This afforded Roman generals not only to opportunity to respond quickly, but also allowed them to leave troops in formation and ready to engage at a moment’s notice. Clearly this afforded the military an advantageous edge in battle, and Rome’s ability to effectively move and deploy troops was paramount in both the conquest and control of its territories both domestic and afar. Just the idea of Roman legions being able to respond to threats anywhere in the empire within weeks, would be enough to keep the peace. The sheer sense of amazement outsiders would feel when simply looking at the vast roadways stood testament to the superiority and control of the empire (Thompson, 1997).  Roads were designed to remain straight and leveled whenever possible, with adequate drainage to keep them dry. They were multilayered and made from various material determined from what was available in the area’s they were built in. Many still stand today, and most all of them have become rebuilt into major roadways in present time. Outside of their usefulness of their own time, they also stood as an example for architects to emulate for centuries to come.

        Romans also realized the need and importance of fresh water in the growth and development of their city. Water is not only an ingredient necessary for life, it provides a valuable resource needed in cleanliness, which in turn helps citizens avoid plague and disease. Large population densities only compound contributing factors to disease, while at the same time sewage and run-off of these large populations also pollute local waterways. Whether or not the aqueducts were actually required to support the growth of Rome is unknown, however there construction (much like the vast roadways) served to leave the onlookers in awe, and further embodied the great success of Rome as a whole. “Ancient aqueducts were essentially man made streams conducting water downhill from the natural sources to the destination” (Taylor, 2012). Engineers needed to cleverly design dams in order to ensure water was available from the source at all time. They also needed to ensure the slope of the aqueduct was not only effective to carry the water for distances over 25 miles, but that it did so without allowing the water to run to fast or to slow. Water flowing to fast would erode the aqueduct prematurely and water flowing to slow would become stagnant and susceptible to bacteria. The use of the “Roman Arch” was a key component to the implementation of the aqueducts, and the aqueducts were used to supply the many bath houses and lavish pools of Rome.